Aerogels are the least dense and most porous materials known to man, with potential applications from lightweight superinsulators to smart energy materials. To date their use has been seriously hampered by their synthesis methods, which are laborious and expensive. Taking inspiration from the life cycle of the damselfly, a novel ambient pressure‐drying approach is demonstrated in which instead of employing low‐surface‐tension organic solvents to prevent pore collapse during drying, sodium bicarbonate solution is used to generate pore‐supporting carbon dioxide in situ, significantly reducing energy, time, and cost in aerogel production. The generic applicability of this readily scalable new approach is demonstrated through the production of granules, monoliths, and layered solids with a number of precursor materials.

BACKGROUND Although agility is an important quality in basketball, factors associated with basketball specific pre-planned-agility (change-of-direction-speed, CODS) and non-planned-agility (reactive agility, RA) are rarely investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate relationship between anthropometric and motor indices with basketball-specific CODS and RA in male basketball players of high performance level. METHODS We tested 88 high-level male basketball players (height: 194.62±8.09 cm; body mass: 89.13±10.81 kg; age: 21.12±3.47 years). The sample was randomly divided into validation (N.=44) and cross-validation (N.=44) subsamples. The study variables included: broad-jump, countermovement-jump, reactive-strength-index, visual-reaction-time, body height, body mass, and body fat percentage (predictors); as well as basketball-specific CODS and RA (criteria). Univariate associations were assessed by Pearson's correlation coefficients. Multivariate relationships between the predictors and the criteria were assessed with multiple regression analysis for the validation subsample, which was then cross-validated. RESULTS The established multiple regression models were successfully cross-validated for CODS (R2=0.40 and 0.36; P=0.01) and RA (R2=0.38 and 0.41; P=0.01, for validation and cross-validation subsample, respectively). The broad-jump (i.e., horizontal displacement) is important predictor of CODS (Beta=-0.41; P=0.01); anthropometrics and body build are specifically associated with RA (Beta=0.51, -0.61 and 0.41 for body height, body mass and body fat percentage, respectively; all P<0.05), while reactive-strength-index is directly related both to CODS (Beta=-0.41, P=0.02), and RA (Beta=-0.40, P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS While basketball players are differentially oriented toward specific game duties, specific capacities should be developed in order to meet specific sport requirements.

Introduction Since the discovery and clinical success of the platinum(II) anticancer drug, cisplatin, researchers are putting much effort to develop more efficient metal-based therapeutic compounds, with fewer side-effects and greater cytoselectivity. Ruthenium complexes arose as promising anticancer agents, due to the success of some ruthenium drug candidates in clinical trials. Here we report comparison of in vitro cytotoxic activity and mechanisms of action of cisplatin and four newly synthesised ruthenium(III) complexes with bidentate anionic schiff base derived from 5-methylsalicilaldehyde and methylamine: (complexes 1– 4). Material and methods Cytotoxicity was tested on four human cancer cell lines (K562, A549, EA.hy926, MDA-MB231) and one human non-tumour cell line (MRC-5), by MTT assay. Being the most cytotoxic of all four tested complexes, complex 1 (C1) (Na[RuLCl2], L=N-propyl-5-chlorosalicideniminato) is selected for further analyses of molecular mechanisms underlying its activity toward MDA-MB231 cells. Results and discussions The average IC50 values were in the low micromolar range 2–23 µM, depending on cell line. Investigated complexes displayed an apparent cytoselective profile, as they reduced the viability of tested tumour cell lines more efficiently than of the non-tumour MRC-5 cells. Cisplatin resistant MDA-MB231 cells showed to be ten times more sensitive to C1 (IC50=2 µM) than to cisplatin. 24 hour treatment of MDA-MB231 cells with IC50 values of C1 and cisplatin induced minor cell cycle alterations, while 48 hour treatment induced substantial accumulation of cells in Sub-G1 region, up to 22.4% (C1) and 86.4% (cisplatin), versus control 4.8%. Acridine orange/ethidium bromide dual staining confirmed the Annexin V-FITC/PI assay results of notable reduction in cell number after the treatment with C1 and cisplatin. While cisplatin-treated cells prominently die of necrosis, C1-treated cells after 24 hour treatment show apoptotic morphology, but after prolonged treatment, necrosis becomes predominant. Decrease in the intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species was comparable in the cisplatin-treated and C1-treated cells, with cisplatin displaying more conspicuous effects at higher dose. C1 entered the cells more efficiently compared to cisplatin. Intracellular C1 concentration after 4 hour treatment exceeded that of cisplatin by 7.8 times approximately. Conclusion Present study pointed out interesting activity of this type of ruthenium(III) complex and need for further biological studies and its chemical structure optimisation.

Background Chagas disease (CD) is a major public health concern in Latin America and a potentially serious emerging threat in non-endemic countries. Although the association between CD and cardiac abnormalities is widely reported, study design diversity, sample size and quality challenge the information, calling for its update and synthesis, which would be very useful and relevant for physicians in non-endemic countries where health care implications of CD are real and neglected. We performed to systematically review and meta-analyze population-based studies that compared prevalence of overall and specific ECG abnormalities between CD and non-CD participants in the general population. Methods Six databases (EMBASE, Ovid Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Central, Google Scholar and Lilacs) were searched systematically. Observational studies were included. Odds ratios (OR) were computed using random-effects model. Results Forty-nine studies were selected, including 34,023(12,276 CD and 21,747 non-CD). Prevalence of overall ECG abnormalities was higher in participants with CD (40.1%; 95%CIs=39.2-41.0) compared to non-CD (24.1%; 95%CIs=23.5-24.7) (OR=2.78; 95%CIs=2.37-3.26). Among specific ECG abnormalities, prevalence of complete right bundle branch block (RBBB) (OR=4.60; 95%CIs=2.97-7.11), left anterior fascicular block (LAFB) (OR=1.60; 95%CIs=1.21-2.13), combination of complete RBBB/LAFB (OR=3.34; 95%CIs=1.76-6.35), first-degree atrioventricular block (A-V B) (OR=1.71; 95%CIs=1.25-2.33), atrial fibrillation (AF) or flutter (OR=2.11; 95%CIs=1.40-3.19) and ventricular extrasystoles (VE) (OR=1.62; 95%CIs=1.14-2.30) was higher in CD compared to non-CD participants. Conclusions This systematic review and meta-analysis provides an update and synthesis in this field. This research of observational studies indicates a significant excess in prevalence of ECG abnormalities (40.1%) related to T. cruzi infection in the general population from Chagas endemic regions, being the most common ventricular (RBBB and LAFB), and A-V B (first-degree) node conduction abnormalities as well as arrhythmias (AF or flutter and VE). Also, prevalence of ECG alterations in children was similar to that in adults and suggests earlier onset of cardiac disease.

BackgroundHBsAg immune-escape mutations can favor HBV-transmission also in vaccinated individuals, promote immunosuppression-driven HBV-reactivation, and increase fitness of drug-resistant strains. Stop-codons can enhance HBV oncogenic-properties. Furthermore, as a consequence of the overlapping structure of HBV genome, some immune-escape mutations or stop-codons in HBsAg can derive from drug-resistance mutations in RT. This study is aimed at gaining insight in prevalence and characteristics of immune-associated escape mutations, and stop-codons in HBsAg in chronically HBV-infected patients experiencing nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) in Europe.MethodsThis study analyzed 828 chronically HBV-infected European patients exposed to ≥ 1 NA, with detectable HBV-DNA and with an available HBsAg-sequence.The immune-associated escape mutations and the NA-induced immune-escape mutations sI195M, sI196S, and sE164D (resulting from drug-resistance mutation rtM204 V, rtM204I, and rtV173L) were retrieved from literature and examined. Mutations were defined as an aminoacid substitution with respect to a genotype A or D reference sequence.ResultsAt least one immune-associated escape mutation was detected in 22.1% of patients with rising temporal-trend. By multivariable-analysis, genotype-D correlated with higher selection of ≥ 1 immune-associated escape mutation (OR[95%CI]:2.20[1.32–3.67], P = 0.002). In genotype-D, the presence of ≥ 1 immune-associated escape mutations was significantly higher in drug-exposed patients with drug-resistant strains than with wild-type virus (29.5% vs 20.3% P = 0.012). Result confirmed by analysing drug-naïve patients (29.5% vs 21.2%, P = 0.032). Strong correlation was observed between sP120T and rtM204I/V (P < 0.001), and their co-presence determined an increased HBV-DNA.At least one NA-induced immune-escape mutation occurred in 28.6% of patients, and their selection correlated with genotype-A (OR[95%CI]:2.03[1.32–3.10],P = 0.001).Finally, stop-codons are present in 8.4% of patients also at HBsAg-positions 172 and 182, described to enhance viral oncogenic-properties.ConclusionsImmune-escape mutations and stop-codons develop in a large fraction of NA-exposed patients from Europe. This may represent a potential threat for horizontal and vertical HBV transmission also to vaccinated persons, and fuel drug-resistance emergence.

Background Juvenile systemic scleroderma (jSSc) is an orphan disease, with an estimated prevalence of 3 per 1000 000 children. Most jSSc patients primarily present with Raynaud phenomenon (RP). We investigated in our patient of the juvenile scleroderma inception cohort, how fare patients with (RP+) and without (RP-) RP differed in their clinical presentation at enrolment. Methods The jSSc is a prospective cohort of jSSc patients. Patients were enrolled who were diagnosed with jSSc, had a jSSc onset age under 16 years and were younger as age of 18 years at the time of inclusion. The patients are prospectively assessed every 6 months according to a standardised protocol. We reviewed the organ involvement pattern of our patients currently followed in the cohort. Results 100 patients are currently followed in the cohort and 89 (89%) of them had RP. The female/male ratio was lower in the RP +group, 3.7:1 compared to 4.5:1(p=0.808). Diffuse subtype was more common in the RP +group, 72% compared to 63%. Mean age of onset of first non- Raynaud symptomatic was 10.4 years in both groups. Mean disease duration was slightly higher in the RP +group, 3.4 compared to 2.2 years. ANA positivity was higher in the RP +group, 88% compared to 70% (p=0.48). Anti-Scl70 was 34% in the RP +and 20% in the RP-group (p=0.34). Interestingly 7% of RP +but none of the RP +were anti-centromere positive. The mean modified skin score was lower in RP +group (mean of 14.8 compared to 17.0). There were significantly more nailfold capillary changes (70% compared to 18%, p=0.001) and a higher rate of history of ulceration in the RP +group (49% compared to 20%, p=0.083). Decreased DLCO and FVC <80% was higher in the RP-negative group with 45%/50% compared to 37.5%/31% respectively. Pulmonary hypertension occurred in 7% in the RP +group and there was no case in the RP- group (p=0.335). RP- group had a higher rate of urinary sediment changes 18% compared to 4.5% in the RP +group (p=0.07). No renal crisis or hypertension was reported in neither groups. Gastrointestinal involvement was similar between the two groups with around 35%. Occurrence of swollen joints was similar in both groups as the frequency of muscle weakness with around 20%. The tendon friction rub occurred around 10% in both groups. In the patient related outcomes, there was only a difference in rating of Raynauds activity. Conclusions The RP– group differed from RP +group in the clinical presentation at enrolment. The absence of Raynaud phenomenon was associated with a decreased rate of history of ulceration, no occurrence of pulmonary hypertension. Interestingly higher rate of urinary sedimentary changes and no anticentromere positivity was observed in RP- patients. Disclosure of Interest None declared

The pathogenesis, clinical course, and response to treatment in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) differ from other types of juvenile idiopathic arthritis and are similar to other interleukin-1 (IL-1)-mediated diseases. The main cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of SJIA is IL-1β, which can be neutralized by targeted anti-IL-1 therapy. In SJIA, no antibodies have been found and there is growing evidence that it is mainly an autoinflammatory and not an autoimmune disease. Before the era of biologic therapy, treatment of SJIA was primarily based on long-term treatment with high doses of glucocorticosteroids (GCS). The side effects of GCS could have a significant impact on the outcome of the disease and could cause long-term damage. Treatment with anti-IL-1 agents early in the disease course has revolutionized the management principles of SJIA. However, not all SJIA patients respond equally well to anti-IL-1 therapy, and it has been shown that age at the onset of disease, duration of the disease, number of affected joints, neutrophil count, and ferritin level can predict the response to anti-IL-1 therapy. In particular, an elevated ferritin level should prompt testing for macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), the most severe complication of SJIA. Anti-IL-1 therapy has been shown to be effective also in patients with MAS. Although anti-IL-1 agents are currently not recommended as first-line treatment, there is growing evidence that anti-IL-1 agents introduced at the beginning of SJIA could enable lower doses and a shorter duration of GCS therapy, change the long-term disease outcome, and even influence molecular disease patterns. There are currently three anti-IL-1 agents available: anakinra, canakinumab, and rilonacept. In this review, we present the current knowledge on the pathogenesis of SJIA, the rational for anti-IL-1 treatment, and future perspectives on the treatment of SJIA.

The IEEE 1901 powerline standard can be deployed using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) since it is robust over impulsive channels. However, the powerline channel picks up impulsive interference that the conventional OFDM driver cannot combat. Since the probability density function (PDF) of OFDM amplitudes follow the Rayleigh distribution, it becomes difficult to correctly predict the existence of impulsive noise (IN) in powerline systems. In this study, we use companding transforms to convert the PDF of the conventional OFDM system to a uniform distribution which avails the identification and mitigation of IN. Results show significant improvement in the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when nonlinear optimization search is applied. We also show that the conventional PDF leads to false IN detection which diminishes the output SNR when nonlinear memoryless mitigation scheme such as clipping or blanking is applied. Thus, companding OFDM signals before transmission helps to correctly predict the optimal blanking or clipping threshold which in turn improves the output SNR performance.

As the age of the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to flourish, the concept of smart healthcare has taken an unprecedented turn due to interdisciplinary thrusts. To carry the big healthcare data ema nating from the plethora of bi 0-sens ors and machines in the IoT sensing plane to the central cloud, next generation high-speed delivery networks are essential. On the other hand, once the IoT data are delivered to the cloud, the massive IoT healthcare data are processed and analyzed em-ploying the state-of-the-art analytics tools such as deep machine learning and so forth. However, given the explosion of big data (from various sources in addition to the healthcare data), the delivery network as well the cloud may experience network and computational congestion, respectively. This may impact the realtime analytics of the healthcare data, e.g., critical for in-house patients and senior citizens aging at home. To address this issue, the emerging IoT edge analytics concept can be regarded as a promising solution to process the big healthcare data close to the source. For larg e-s cale IoT dep loym ents, this fu nctio nality is critical because of the sheer volumes of Data being generated. In this paper, we propose a deep learning based IoT edge analytics approach to support intelligent healthcare for residential users. The performance of the proposal is validated using computer-based simulation for online training of a real dataset. The reported results of our proposal exhibit encouraging performance in terms of low loss rate, high accuracy, and low execution time to support near real-time actionable decision making on the healthcare data.

Seismic properties and equation-of-state parameters of the liquid iron alloy in the outer core are inferred from normal mode data. Turbulent convection of the liquid iron alloy outer core generates Earth’s magnetic field and supplies heat to the mantle. The exact composition of the iron alloy is fundamentally linked to the processes powering the convection and can be constrained by its seismic properties. Discrepancies between seismic models determined using body waves and normal modes show that these properties are not yet fully agreed upon. In addition, technical challenges in experimentally measuring the equation-of-state (EoS) parameters of liquid iron alloys at high pressures and temperatures further complicate compositional inferences. We directly infer EoS parameters describing Earth’s outer core from normal mode center frequency observations and present the resulting Elastic Parameters of the Outer Core (EPOC) seismic model. Unlike alternative seismic models, ours requires only three parameters and guarantees physically realistic behavior with increasing pressure for a well-mixed homogeneous material along an isentrope, consistent with the outer core’s condition. We show that EPOC predicts available normal mode frequencies better than the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) while also being more consistent with body wave–derived models, eliminating a long-standing discrepancy. The velocity at the top of the outer core is lower, and increases with depth more steeply, in EPOC than in PREM, while the density in EPOC is higher than that in PREM across the outer core. The steeper profiles and higher density imply that the outer core comprises a lighter but more compressible alloy than that inferred for PREM. Furthermore, EPOC’s steeper velocity gradient explains differential SmKS body wave travel times better than previous one-dimensional global models, without requiring an anomalously slow ~90- to 450-km-thick layer at the top of the outer core.

Introduction: The dominant global public health challenge are non-communicable diseases. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data. The fifth leading causes of death in FB&H are diseases of the heart and coronary arteries: stroke, acute myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy and essential hypertension. The prevention of these diseases has great importance in improving health in B&H. Objective: The aim of this study is in estimation of one-year survival and left heart systolic function after the treatment. After the data collection and evidence of their statistical value, the results of the research point to the profile of patients with a LAD disease in one-vessel coronary artery disease that should be subjected to PCI DES LAD and PCI BMS LAD, respectively, or creating guidelines for a better and more effective LAD treatment. Material and methods: The study was performed as retrospective/ prospective, clinically controlled for a period of three years. In this study was included 60 patients, which was followed in 12 months period. With the PCI BMS method was treated 63.3% and 36.7% of subjects were treated with the PCI DES in LAD. Conclusion: The number of complications in patients with one-vessel LAD coronary heart disease, treated with PCI DES and PCI BMS was statistically significant. One possible complication (4 patients) is due to the spread of the disease to other blood vessels. Due to possible complications in the treated or LAD with repeated stenosis, the complication in terms of restenosis of the previously placed stent in 75% are with BM stents justifying the use of drug eluting stent, while the progression of disease in patients (2 patients) indicates the need for detection and prevention of risk factors.

Introduction: Breast cancer and its treatment change the perception of mastectomized women of their physical appearance, which leads to depression and has a negative effect on the overall quality of life of those woman. Aim: We wanted to assess the quality of life and the degree of depression of patients suffering from breast cancer, on the basis of a standardised questionnaire to assess the patients’ quality of life (QLQ-C-30 BR-23), and the degree of depression using Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI, II). Materials and Methods: The research was conducted on a sample of 160 patients, who were surveyed before and after the surgical procedure. The inclusion criteria for the research were: patients suffering from breast cancer aged between 18 and 70 years, cancer diagnosed by FNB or CORE biopsy. The patients were divided into two groups: patients having breast-conserving surgery and patients having radical surgical treatment. Results: There were 47 or 39.37% patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery and 113 or 70.62% patients who underwent radical surgery. The results of the survey conducted show that there was no difference in the quality of life of patients before and after surgery, regardless of the type of surgical procedure undertaken. However, there was a significant different in the degree of depression between patients subjected to different surgical procedures, where the patients surveyed post-surgery after radical mastectomy showed a higher degree of depression than the patients surveyed after breast-conserving surgery. Conclusion: There is no difference in the quality of life before and after surgery, regardless of the type of operation. However, there is a significant difference in the degree of depression in patients after radical mastectomy, who showed a higher degree of depression than the surveyed patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery.